Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Forest of Dean. You may be able to find further references to Forest of Dean in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
DEAN FOREST an ancient forest and five chapelries Imperial
Dean, Forest of ancient forest Bartholomew
Forest of Dean Division parliamentary division Bartholomew

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Forest of Dean within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
William Camden Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire 2
William Gilpin London to Ross 2
Gerald of Wales Book I, Ch. 5: Usk and Caerleon 1
William Gilpin To the source of the Wye 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Cinderford 0 2
Woodside 0 1
Littledean 0 4
East Dean 0 2
Flaxley 0 2
Abenhall 0 2
Drybrook 0 2
Ruspidge 0 1
Mitcheldean 1 2
Blaisdon 0 2
Newnham 2 2
Ruardean 1 2
Longhope 0 2
Lea Bailey 0 2
Hope Mansell 0 2
Hinders Lane 0 1
Lydbrook 1 3
Arlingham 0 2
Lea 0 3
Westbury on Severn 1 4

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Forest of Dean. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
DANICA SYLVA William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
DEAN John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
DEANE FORREST William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
DEAN FOREST John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
DEAN FOREST OF John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
FOREST OF DEAN John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
FOREST OF DEAN DIVISION John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.